Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) was a landmark Supreme Court case that affirmed the First Amendment rights of students in public schools. The case began when three students, John and Mary Beth Tinker, and Christopher Eckhardt, wore black armbands to their Des Moines, Iowa, school to protest the Vietnam War. The school district, upon learning of the protest, enacted a policy banning the wearing of armbands, and the students were suspended for defying it. The Tinkers sued, arguing that their right to free speech had been violated.
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students, stating that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Court held that students could engage in peaceful protest as long as it did not cause a material disruption or interfere with the operation of the school. This ruling established the principle that the First Amendment applies to students in public schools, and it emphasized that school authorities must have more than just fear of disruption to justify limiting student expression. Tinker v. Des Moines remains a key decision in the ongoing debate over student rights and free speech in schools.